This past February, Raymond Bachand, Quebec's finance minister, announced that Quebec was in need of a "cultural revolution." The ministry released a report that calculated that Quebec has one of the most indebted economies in the industrialized world. Quebec's $285.6-billion debt is equal to 94.6% of the province's GDP; only Japan, Italy, Greece, and Iceland have a larger debt-to-GDP ratio than Quebec. This proposed "cultural revolution" is an attempt to prepare Quebec workers and students to accept cuts to social spending on a level unseen in Quebec history.

One day after Quebec finance minister Raymond Bachand tabled the 2010 budget, some 12,000 people gathered at Square Phillips in Montreal to show their opposition to the budget. At least 40 buses from all over Quebec, some from as far away as Gaspé, arrived at the square. This impressive show of strength, happened just two weeks after the massive 75,000 Common Front demonstration, is a sign of the militant mood amongst Quebec workers against the bosses’ planned cuts and attacks.

Municipal elections were held across Quebec on 1st November 2009. The results in Montreal are a further proof of the crisis of the bourgeois parties which has already been exposed at the federal and provincial level. The elections were plagued by accusations of corruption and mafia ties amongst the two main parties, Union Montréal and Vision Montréal. Projet Montréal, a fledgling left party, made historic gains. What is needed now is for the party to transform itself into a labour party, winning over the workers by making reforms that benefit workers, such as free public transportation, their central slogan.

On Saturday 20th March, 75,000 workers from all over Quebec filled the streets of Montreal to show their strength, 10 days before the end of the collective agreement for nearly half a million Quebec public and para-public sector workers. For the Charest government, the end of the contract couldn’t come at a worse time, since it is faced with a $4.7 billion deficit for this year’s budget.

For decades politics in Quebec has been dominated by the national question. Ever since the failed Common Front general strike of 1972, the formerly petty bourgeois, and now bourgeois, Parti Quebecois has claimed leadership of the struggle against national oppression and used it to blur the class differences in Quebec society. It is with this in mind that, as Marxists, we were excited with the formation of Quebec solidaire--a party that could move towards the establishment of a real party of the Quebec working class for the first time in history. Joel Bergman of the International Marxist Tendency in Quebec reports from the QS congress in November.

After the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, governments around the world have been quick to announce that the recession is over and that a recovery is on the horizon. Even though Quebec was not hit as hard as some other areas, workers there still have felt the squeeze. After accumulating record deficits, the Quebec Liberals are looking to hammer Quebec workers and make them pay for the bosses' crisis. The formation of a new Common Front is the first step toward a workers' fightback in Quebec.

Quebec solidaire held its 4th congress in Sherbrooke the 19th, 20th and 21st of June. Members of the International Marxist Tendency braved the two-hour trip to take part in this democratic gathering. In a historic step forward for the IMT in Quebec, the tendency is now officially recognized as a collective within QS.

Here, Joel Bergman of the La Riposte editorial board presents the view of the Quebec Marxists on the National question. He outlines that there is a huge difference between the “sovereignty” of the workers and the sovereignty of the bosses and the PQ leadership.

Despite the new majority Liberal government in Quebec, the defeat of the chauvinist ADQ and the victory of Amir Khadir of Quebec Solidaire are important wins for the working class. Solidaire must now use this platform to wage a fightback againt the inevitable atacks from the Liberals and capitalists in Quebec.